Garden Décor: The Trellis

A trellis is a garden décor element that makes a wonderful addition when structured against one wall of the house or as constructed to be part of the garden itself: as an edging or backdrop to a flower bed etc.

Even by itself, the usually crisscrossing design of garden trellis is very attractive and can be fairly easy to assemble.

When choosing a trellis for your garden, care has to be taken when choosing the material that your trellis will be constructed from. Metal trellises are popular choices because they can be very beautiful and ornate.

However if you are planning to use the trellis as an actual support for plants (as opposed to a bare design element), then metal may not be the best choice.

The reason for this is that metal, due to its superior heat conducting properties heats up; absorbing the sun’s heat and this may actually end up retarding the growth of the plant.

Trellises can form a lovely support for flowering annuals such as Sweet Pea, for grape vines, ivy or other climbers and creepers. For the DIY among us, this youtube video offers some good step by step suggestions about how to build your own trellis: Youtube